2 months ago
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At the inaugural league of the India Energy Week (IEW), successful January 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi positioned India’s ambitions astatine the centrestage of the planetary vigor discourse, highlighting concern opportunities worthy $500 cardinal crossed the sector. As India raises its ambition from vigor information to vigor independence, the affordability of cleanable vigor specified arsenic greenish hydrogen and its derivatives is captious to the semipermanent competitiveness of India’s vigor transition. But from fertilizers to cleanable vigor and marine fuel, determination are present greenish ammonia applications which are wide-ranging. Green ammonia — produced by combining nitrogen with greenish hydrogen — is presently starring successful the adoption of greenish hydrogen, with its strategical adoption precocious crossed regions specified arsenic the European Union (EU), India and South Korea.
Aggregated procurement mechanisms are starting to laic the instauration for a planetary greenish ammonia market. Some noteworthy examples see H2Global’s tender of greenish ammonia nether the EU’s hydrogen import strategy, South Korea’s Clean Hydrogen Portfolio Standard (CHPS) tender for cleanable ammonia procurement arsenic a bulk fuel, and the caller tender concluded by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) nether the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme of India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission.
Green ammonia auction
Compared to these planetary procurement practices, India’s greenish ammonia auction nether SECI demonstrates broader marketplace participation, attracting 15 bidders and resulting successful 7 unsocial palmy awardees. Under the SIGHT programme, SECI floated a tender successful June 2024 for an aggregated request of up to 724,000 tonnes of greenish ammonia annually crossed 13 fertilizer plants successful India. These tenders concluded successful August 2025, and offered a 10-year, fixed-price offtake agreements to palmy bidders. This clarity successful terms and offtake provided producers with the marketplace certainty required for investment. The auctions established a important breakthrough successful cost-competitive greenish ammonia procurement, mounting caller planetary benchmarks, astir 40%-50% little than the prices from the H2Global auction
The tender process faced aggregate extensions and revisions, chiefly to resoluteness concerns astir hazard allocation, outgo security, and clarity connected offtake and pricing conditions, raised by some task developers and offtakers. These refinements successfully addressed concerns, starring to a balanced win-win model for each stakeholders.
In this auction, 7 bidders secured a full of 13 transportation contracts for greenish ammonia. Notably, 1 institution won six contracts for 3,70,000 tonnes/year. These contracts see accumulation subsidies of ₹8.82 a kilogramme, ₹7.06 a kg, and ₹5.3 a kg for the archetypal 3 years and a 10-year fixed terms proviso statement to existing fertilizer manufacturers successful India.
The discovered prices of greenish ammonia crossed these tenders scope from ₹49.75 and ₹64.74/kg ($572 and $744 a tonne). In India, the grey ammonia terms is arsenic precocious arsenic $515 a tonne. When factoring successful the recently discovered terms of greenish ammonia, supported by longer-term contracts, the outgo spread has importantly narrowed.
On transportation and transportation
Notably, a standout diagnostic of SECI’s tender is the pre-identification of transportation points, arsenic astir fertilizer plants wherever the greenish ammonia is to beryllium delivered are located adjacent coastal areas, enabling the proscription of greenish ammonia done shipping arsenic well. The contracted volumes of greenish ammonia lend to astir 30% of the full ammonia being imported, offering terms predictability and greater insulation from planetary state marketplace volatility, currency risks and geopolitical pressures. In locations wherever grey ammonia costs are higher, greenish ammonia procurement increases its entreaty for scale-up.
Propelling the momentum
India’s attack is progressively shaping the cleanable ammonia scenery worldwide, owing to its operation of debased renewable vigor costs, large-scale logistics, robust declaration plan and targeted incentives. As much countries question reliable cleanable ammonia imports to decarbonise industry, powerfulness and transport, India’s palmy auction exemplary is good placed to signifier emerging planetary marketplace structures and accelerate adoption astatine scale.
However, sustaining the momentum created by India’s greenish ammonia auctions volition necessitate coordinated and sustained enactment from policymakers, task developers and financiers. Developers indispensable absorption connected beardown method and fiscal owed diligence, integrate hybrid renewable systems with storage, and follow transparent monitoring frameworks to guarantee semipermanent operational viability. Policymakers, successful turn, request to supply unchangeable and harmonised regulations connected grid access, banking and incentives, portion strengthening information standards and aligning certification frameworks with evolving planetary norms.
Long-tenor, blended concern facilities, backed by extended offtake agreements and dedicated risk-mitigation instruments, tin further heighten task bankability and assemblage successful backstage capital. Together, these measures tin reenforce capitalist confidence, accelerate scale-up, and firmly presumption India not conscionable arsenic a subordinate but besides arsenic a planetary person successful cleanable ammonia markets.
Pawan Mulukutla is Executive Program Director – Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen astatine WRI India. Anuraag Nallapaneni is Program Lead – Hydrogen astatine WRI India. Sneha Malhotra is Program Associate Director – Energy Innovation and Technology astatine WRI India. The views expressed are idiosyncratic
